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Janus
Janus is an extremely mysterious and dangerous individual currently terrorizing the Seattle metroplex. She is one of the chief targets of both Knight Errant's OCIE unit and the Puyallup vigilante Enoch. Appearances For such a fearsome presence plaguing both the light and dark sides of Seattle's streets, Janus has been remarkably little seen. The first whisperings of her presence were heard before the contract switch over between Lone Star and Knight-Errant. Eyewitness reports indicated her involvement in the murder of Lone Star sergeant Joseph Hennessy , though she was misidentified as a man at the time. The subsequent investigation in Hennessy's death by (at the time) Knight-Inspector Haifa Ferzend , and Lone Star officers Adrian Delacroix and Ethan Conner , unfolded gradually to encompass a criminal conspiracy of unimaginable scale. Thus far Janus has been seen rarely and only at a distance. The single exception to this is the case of Enoch , who was kidnapped by the maniacal clown and, in short order, was imprisoned, mentally and physically tortured, raped, and had severely invasive cyber surgery performed upon him. Even following his rescue by the OCIE, Enoch has been subjected to a nearly constant stream of threats, insults, and jokes via his installed comlink. This was only alleviated by the technomancy of Sasha Ferzend and Zero, who warn the defense will only be temporary. Effect on the world Starting with the Ono ta Ke, Janus has in a few short months destroyed one gang after another, including the Taiwodah Seoulpa Ring, incorporating their personnel and resources into her own Revelers. She has accomplished this through careful manipulation of the politics of the street, utilizing proxies and misinformation to turn friends against one another, fool others into fighting her battles for her, and form alliances with some of the most powerful gangs in the metroplex. Furthermore, Janus' distinctive clown theme has spread out from the Revelers to members of other gangs, chiefly individuals in the allied Reality Hackers, Ash Wraiths, and Halloweeners. It is not currently known how or why this is occurring, particularly given the outsized importance placed upon iconography and use of particular ornamentation amongst gang members, but there is no doubt those affecting the style have proven unpredictable, violent, and unstable. Known information Frustratingly little can be confirmed about Janus, and thus far no evidence of her existence prior to events in Seattle has been found. Janus was one of several troubleshooters brought in by the Yakuza during the Golden Elixir war, later assigned the task of eliminating Enoch from the Cauldron. Somehow this led to her eventual takeover and controlled annihilation of the Ono ta Ke, the precursor event that has brought Puyallup to the precipice of what many believe could be an all out shadow war. Janus affects a clown style, though her "makeup" appears to actually be something more permanent--perhaps tattooing or a peculiar birth defect. She is known to suffer from Napier's Syndrome, a rare nerve disorder that causes individuals to have difficulty matching their facial expression to their emotional state. Despite this, she has proven to be an able actress, capable of lurking unnoticed in plain sight. Janus is utterly unstable, and though no formal psychiatric diagnosis has yet been commissioned, she is almost certainly a psychopath of the first order, entirely remorseless about the casualties of her scheming. She also demonstrates many classical sociopathic/dissociative tendencies, actively flouting all social convention and even the barest codes of honor amongst the criminal world. In fact, Janus' only readable motivation so far seems to be a need to gleefully dismantle social structures at all levels of society, from the streets to the skyscrapers. Zero has expressed something akin to guilt when the subject of Janus is broached. Though she has been typically vague regarding details, it appears that she played some part in Janus' current campaign of terror. She recently referred to the Revelers, who have been hunting her, as "my children", which seems odd given Janus' obvious status as the gang's "mother". Category:Characters Category:Cops and Knights Campaign